US president Barack Obama may not be able to take away Bill Cosby’s presidential medal of freedom, but he didn’t spare any words in condemning the comedian’s alleged crimes. Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them, and he testified in a 2005 legal deposition that he obtained a sedative to give to women that he wanted to have sex with.
“If you give a woman or a man without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape,” Obama said at a White House press conference today.
Asked about revoking Cosby’s medal, the country’s highest civilian honor, Obama said there was no mechanism or precedent for taking such a step.